User Report Kordel - On the way to perfection

Gear Manufacturer Kordel successfully works with the InoZet® clamping system

Kordel Antriebstechnik GmbH are well known for their high quality gearing solutions. As utmost precision is required in the production process the company believes in using pendulum bridges with 6-point clamping for processing round workpieces.

Kordel Antriebstechnik GmbH is a familiy enterprise with long tradition. In the early seventies the gearing specialists from Dülmen drew attention to their first own constructions and special solutions for agricultural machinery and electric forklift trucks. Nowadays the former welding- and fitting shop is a much asked for producer of gearing solutions of any kind. The Kordel products – planetary gears, ball bearings or gearing- and engine housings – are being used all over the world. Kordel's clientel are among others manufacturers of agricultural machinery and earth moving equipment as well as ground mounted hoisting machines.Practice test passed

"In our production quality comes first“, declares Managing Director Johannes Kordel. Especially in case of processing of circular and sensitive workpieces problems have frequently occured with the conventional 3-jaw chucks: workpieces can deform and get out-of-round though the high locking clamp pressure and the uneven distribution of the forces. When visiting an in-house-exhibition of a machine-tool manufacturer in early 2010 Kordel learnd about the novel clamping system InoZet®. At first glance he realised the advantages: „We instantly realised that the 6-point clamping would bring about some considerable improvement. Still, we first wanted to test the pendulum bridges in application with our workpieces. Today we can say: test passed!"

Out-of-roundness halved

The functional principle of the InoZet®-pendulum bridges is very simple: Mounted on the base jaws of the present chuck the bridges act compensating due to the oscillating bearing and at the same time they are covering the entire clamping range. The retrofittable system turns a 3-point clamping into a 6-pont clapming which is much less susceptible to deformation. Because through the bigger amount of clamping points the locking clamp pressure is reduced and the and the clamping force is more evenly distributed. „By using InoZet® we managed to halve our out-of-roundness", says Werner Goßling, Manager of the turning section, confirming the effectiveness of the system. The measurable tolerances are in a hundredth-millimetre range (see pic. 3).

Eight systems in use

Due to the convincing performance in practice Kordel Antriebstechnik GmbH continuously built up their inventory. Meanwhile Kordel habve eight InoZet® sytems with 6-point clamping in use. „This way we simply enjoy more ease in production", says Goßling. Finally, production cost reduce due to fewer rejects.

As InoZet® can be retrofitted on any present chuck from diametre 210 mm the procurement cost is within reason. There is no need for expensive special jaws. Concerns becuase of the higher weight of the pendulum bridges Gößling can disable: „Centrifugal force is no issue as we get nowhere near the speed that is allowed for the system."

Further reduction of tolerances

The InoZet® clamping system which received the NORTEC award in 2010 is an innovation of HWR Spanntechnik GmbH. HWR Managing Director Volker Henke still sees some big potential in this field: „We know that the market keeps asking for increasing precision. This is why we are already working on developments of the system in order to further reduce out-of-roundnesses in workpieces."

For Kordel Antriebstechnik GmbH it is clear that the successful cooperation with HWR Spanntechnik GmbH will be continued in the years to come. "We still have a big demand of practice oriented clamping systems and in HWR we have a reliable partner by our side", says Managing Director Johannes Kordel.